We touch down in Consett and Stanley in our weekly trawl around the towns and villages of the North East.

Using the picture archive of the Sunday Sun, we recall some of the people and places of the two County Durham towns.

Consett, of course, is nestled between the Pennines to the West, and the former industrial heartlands of Tyneside and Wearside to the East.

Back in 1980 it was dealt a hammer blow when its giant steelworks closed.

Today, there is little sign of the decades of heavy industry that took place on the site.

The steelworks once provided work for thousands of local people and gave the town its identity.

Consett grew as a thriving community around the plant after the Derwent Iron Company was formed in 1841, following the discovery of iron ore deposits.

It did not start making steel until 1881, but Consett’s product was seen as the best in the world, good enough to rival anything produced in that other renowned steel town, Sheffield. Sadly, almost exactly a century after this, on September 12, 1980, Consett steelworkers clocked off for the last time.

Despite demonstrations and protests, British Steel Corporation deemed the plant was no longer economically viable, and it was axed with the loss of 4,500 jobs.

Workers leave the steelworks in Consett for the last time after its closure in 1980

Our main image shows grim-faced steel workers and office staff leaving the plant for the last time.

Looking back, one former steel worker told the Chronicle: “It was a very sad day because we didn’t know what the future would bring. When you throw thousands of people out of work, you can imagine how they feel.

“Some of them were 45 years old and could not get a job. They were facing 20 years on the dole.”

The closure was an economic catastrophe for the town and there was much suffering during the 1980s.

Regeneration in the 1990s in the shape of new housing and retail projects, has brought welcome and ongoing improvement.

Stanley, meanwhile, a former mining town, provides one of our quirkier images as it was once host to its own zoo in the late 1960s.

We also have a sprinkling of archive photos from nearby Rowlands Gill, Lanchester, Burnopfield and Dipton.